The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 3, September, 1900Oregon Historical Society
History
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 3, September, 1900
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon -- History -- Periodicals
BOSTON, May 1, 1842.
SIR: Thinking it may be interesting or important to know some of
the late operations and present plans of the Hudson’s Bay
Company in the North Pacific Ocean, I beg leave to present to
your notice some facts in relation to the same, and which have
come to my knowledge from personal observation, or from sources
entitled to the fullest credit.
All that extensive line of coast comprehending the Russian
possessions on the Northwest Coast of America, from Mount Saint
Elias south to the latitude 54° 40′ north (the last being the
boundary line between the Russian and American territories),
together with the sole and exclusive right or privilege of
frequenting all ports, bays, sounds, rivers, etc., within said
territory, and establishing forts and trading with the Indians,
has been leased or granted by the Russian-American Fur Company
to the British Hudson’s Bay Company, for the term of ten years
from January, 1842; and for which the latter are to pay,
_annually_, four thousand seal skins, or the value thereof in
money, at the rate of thirty-two shillings each, say £6,400
sterling, or $30,720.
In the above-named lease the Russians have, however, reserved to
themselves the Island of Sitka, or New Archangel; in which
place, you probably are aware, the Russians have a large
settlement—the depot and headquarters of their fur trade with
the Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, and the continental shore
westward of Mount Saint Elias. All the trading establishments of
the Russians lately at Tumgass, Stickene, and other places
within said territory, leased to the Hudson’s Bay Company, have
of consequence been broken up. Thus the Hudson’s Bay Company not
content with monopolizing the heretofore profitable trade of the
Americans, of supplying the Russian settlements on the Northwest
Coast, have now cut them off also from all trade with the most
valuable fur regions in the world.
Whether the arrangements made between the Russians and English,
above alluded to, are conformable to the treaties existing
between the United States on the one part, and those nations
respectively on the other, I leave to your better knowledge to
determine.
With the doings of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Puget Sound and
the Columbia River you are doubtless fully informed; those,
however, lately commenced by them in California will admit of my
saying a few words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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